No, because there are tons of Warner titles that could be argued to be just as canonical that they’ve also chosen not to release. It’s a big catalog and they’ve only really been exploiting it relatively recently.

Some very understandable confusion has arisen over our status due to some recent news concerning the Warner Archive Instant streaming service. Although we, indeed, initially launched the service, it was spun off as its own entity nearly three years ago (our hands are plenty full running our thriving Blu-ray and DVD business, thank you very much). The Warner Archive Collection, our podcast, our iTunes room, and most importantly, our Blu-ray and DVD releases are not going anywhere. Sorry for any confusion and thank you for your support.

Much better cover for sure, but still it feels strange that it's being reissued (and relegated?) to the archive collection. FWIW, it's already been available in the UK from Warner Bros. as a mid-priced Blu-Ray. No extras or booklet, but otherwise it seems like they cloned the feature from the American edition.

jsteffe wrote:I got to see the Blu-ray of The Sea Wolf, and it's a stunner. Apparently it comes from a nitrate fine grain element--of the longer version of the film. The image is wonderfully atmospheric and film-like! It also serves as a reminder just what a good director Michael Curtiz could be. This film deserves to be recognized as a major work.

I finally caught this and couldn’t agree more about it being a major work. This is such a shocking, nasty little treasure that really belongs in the pantheon of dark Warner classics from their classic late-30s, early-40s era. Rossen’s script is beautifully spare and literary, and every character is just so thoroughly irredeemable and perfectly cast (even Alexander Knox, who I was heretofore unfamiliar with). One of Robinson’s great villain roles, too. It’s really too bad Criterion themselves didn’t pick up this one and try to rehabilitate its reputation with some contextualizing extras as they did with The Breaking Point (but it’s not like that one appears to be burning up the boards with much discussion).

Feego wrote:Meet Me in St. Louis. I'm guessing this will lose the previous edition's book and sampler CD, but it's definitely getting an upgrade in the cover art.

I wonder if it will retain the audio commentary. The CD sampler is all of twelve minutes, and the booklet is total fluff, with page after page filled with:
- heavily manipulated pics, sometimes with a sentence or two of text
- a short list of "must-see" Garland films that includes A Child Is Waiting but leaves out other Minnelli films she starred in such as The Clock and The Pirate; the list of Minnelli must-sees is similarly lacking and useless
- and "singalong" lyrics for "The Trolley Song," for example, that include only about the first 30 seconds of the song—part of the chorus intro, but not a word of what Garland sings! They even have to be stingy about the amount of lyrics they bother to put on the page?

This is the kind of thing I'm often tempted to rant a little about when I think of how little WHV has been good for in the high-def era and how little they do with even most of their blue-chip holdings, popular films from the 1940s and ’50s featuring major stars.

I agree with the praise for The Sea Wolf, and it's unfortunate that while the number of WAC Blu-rays has increased dramatically, the number of offerings from the 1940s has dropped dangerously close to nil (The Sea Wolf is the only one in the past twelve months, and for a time before that the only 1940s title was Battleground. Glad to see that the number of WAC releases has picked up so much but within those numbers, but there's so little among this output that interests me anymore. I was able to resell my DVD-R of The Hanging Tree so will surely pick that one up on Blu, but it's difficult to even accumulate four releases that I really want for one of the 4 for $44 deals. The Sea Wolf was absolutely top-notch, though.

Is Meet Me in St Louis the first WB bluray to get re-released via WAC? Could this be start of a trend for them. Their older blu releases I suspect could make the jump. Titles like Mutiny on the Bounty, Maltese Falcon and The Treasure of the Sierra Madre to name a few. Especially if they have been redone with a 4k scan.

It's a little perplexing to start with, in my opinion, as I feel like the sales of Holiday titles like that are heavily clustered on impulse buying in-stores towards the end of the year. But the thinking might be that window has already passed, I guess!

I don't really think WB needs to be getting into the re-release game, despite some less-than-stellar early BD releases. They're still got such a huge untapped library and relatively little product coming each year!

True. But they are notorious at re-releasing titles, like the constant anniversary excuse they use for the money grab. Shifting titles already released to WAC would be just another way for them to continue the money grab.

Take elite commandos, send them on a do-or-die assignment – and sit back and watch the action explode. The men-on-a-mission formula that worked in 1967’s The Dirty Dozen and in Where Eagles Dare (released in the U.S. in 1969) provides another salvo of volatile screen adventure with this strike force saga released in 1968. Rod Taylor and Jim Brown are among a mercenary unit rolling on a steam train across the Congo, headed for the dual tasks of rescuing civilians imperiled by rebels and recovering a cache of diamonds. The film’s violence is fierce, unforgiving, ahead of its time. Quentin Tarantino would offer a tribute of sorts to this red-blooded wallop of a cult fave by using part of its compelling score in Inglourious Basterds (2009).
....
COLOSSUS OF RHODES (1961)
NEW 2018 1080p HD MASTER
Run Time 128:00
Subtitles English SDH
DTS HD-Master Audio 2.0 MONO- English
16 X 9 LETTERBOX, ORIGINAL ASPECT RATIO - 2.35:1
COLOR
BD 50
Special Feature
Commentary by Film Historian Christopher Frayling

Filmmakers often begin their directing careers with works of limited scale. Sergio Leone began with a Colossus. Spectacle is king in The Colossus of Rhodes, Leone’s first credited film as a director. Sun-bronzed heroes (including toga-wearing Rory Calhoun) battle tyranny. Prisoners scramble for their lives in coliseum pageants of doom. Usurpers connive. Revolution erupts. And towering over all the excitement is the mighty bronze Colossus that straddles the harbor, fighting foes by dropping burning oil from the huge cauldron it holds and firing streams of molten lead from the catapults in its headpiece. Once upon a time, it dazzled the ancient world. Cult-movie fans think it’s pretty nifty, too.